Australian PGA Championship gets facelift

Date: February 27 2013

Wayne Heming

A party-style hole, live bands and marquee-lined fairways are ideas that will be tossed around to provide fans with more bang for their buck when the Australian PGA Championship shifts from Coolum to Royal Pines resort later this year.

The venue change follows the breakdown of an 11 year relationship between the PGA of Australia and the Coolum resort which soured last December after new owner, billionaire Clive Palmer, painted signs on the fairways and engaged in other threatening tactics.

A number of courses in Brisbane and throughout the state lobbied hard to secure the marquee event, which attracts Australia's best players and in recent years has lured the likes of recent British Open champion Darren Clarke and Americans Bubba Watson and Ricky Fowler to Queensland.

Chief executive of the PGA of Australia, Brian Thorburn, announced a five-year deal with new hosts Royal Pines on Wednesday, including the resort's commitment to spend $5 million to toughen up the course which has been home to the Ladies Masters for 20 years.

Holes would be lengthened, tee boxes moved to bring more water into play, fairways narrowed and re-shaped by more rough and bunkered and some greens firmed up.

"There's things that can be done to make the course more challenging for men," said Thorburn.

While Jeff the Dinosaur - who grabbed worldwide attention at Coolum last year, won't be part of the 2013 sideshow - Thorburn said his board would examine ways of putting on more entertainment.

He cited Phil Mickelson's recent 28-under score in the Phoenix Open at Scottsdale, Arizona, as an example of how fans loved seeing players take golf courses apart.

"They had a party hole on the 16th and had 500,000 people through in four days," he said.

"They had 173,000 people on the Saturday, but that's America.

"Obviously if you get 28 under it's not as challenging as other courses.

"But it's an entertaining and unique experience which is very different and something we'd like to look into.

"We'll look at having a party hole and at staging other events like travelling bands or entertainers.

"The opportunity is there and the vision is there to make it much more than just a golf tournament and more of an event."

Thorburn wasn't expecting any backlash from Palmer who rarely loses and who was supremely confident of keeping the PGA Championship at his Sunshine Coast resort.

"This is the PGA's championship, it's not Clive's championship," said Thorburn.

"We as an independent entity make our own judgments about where we play."

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